It's been a while since I wrote a full Mavs News article, but I've been
pretty disgusted with the whole lockout thing, especially since real games
started being lost. As you have heard, the league and the players have
reached an agreement and the lawyers are currently working on writing
everything down. Once the lawyers get done with the documentation, the
new collective bargaining agreement will be signed and the lockout will
officially end. The plan is for training camp to open January 18 and the
season to start Friday February 5th. The season will consist of 52 games
with 25 home games and 25 road games. They are currently working on
creating a new schedule and it is expected to be released some time next
week (I'll send out the Mavs schedule as soon as I find out about it).
There will also be two exhibition games during the training camps - one
home and one road. The admission to the exhibition games will be free; it
will be up to the individual teams how the tickets will be distributed.
The Mavs are also planning on having some free autograph sessions and at
least one open practice - again, I'll pass on info when I hear about it.
Now we can actually talk about basketball.
The good news for the Mavs is that they are pretty set roster wise. There
are 10 players under contract, Dirk Nowitzki is coming, and Kurt Thomas is
expected to be signed to a 1 year contract. The Mavs, as usual, have no
room under the salary cap - the 10 contracts add up to $29.8 million and
Dirk's $1.4 million (or whatever it exactly is - the #9 pick last year
earned $1.36 million) counts against the cap even though he is not signed
yet and the cap is around $30 million. Thomas can be re-signed without
regard to the cap. The new CBA includes an average exception ($1,750,000
for 98-99 - can be split on more than one player) and a median exception
($1 million, but this exception can only be used every other year). So,
if the Mavs are unable to re-sign Thomas, make a trade of a player for a
pick, and/or a serious injury occurs, the Mavs do have an ability to sign
a decent free agent.
The 10 players under contract are:
Player Pos Ht Wt B-day 98-99 Salary
Shawn Bradley ......... C 7-6 263 3/22/72 $6,570,000
Michael Finley ........ G-F 6-7 215 3/6/73 $6,000,000
A.C. Green ............ F 6-9 225 10/4/63 $5,095,000
Robert Pack ........... G 6-2 190 2/3/69 $3,780,000
Khalid Reeves ......... G 6-3 201 7/15/72 $2,002,000
Erick Strickland ...... G 6-3 210 11/25/73 $1,920,000
Samaki Walker ......... F 6-9 258 2/25/76 $1,620,000
Steve Nash ............ G 6-3 195 2/7/74 $1,191,000
Chris Anstey .......... C 7-0 249 1/1/75 $985,000
Hubert Davis .......... G 6-5 183 5/17/70 $645,000
The Mavs' free agents are:
Player Pos Ht Wt B-day 97-98 Salary
Cedric Ceballos ....... F 6-7 220 8/2/69 [$2,605,000]
Kurt Thomas ........... F 6-9 230 10/4/72 [$1,398,960]
Shawn Respert ......... G 6-2 195 2/6/72 [$272,250]
Eric Riley ............ C 7-0 245 6/2/70 [$272,250]
Ace Custis ............ F 6-9 211 5/24/74 [$242,000]
Riley and Respert will likely not be back. Nelson has said that the Mavs
are not even going to talk with Ceballos as it was clear from discussions
before the lockout that they would not be able to work anything out.
Ceballos wants a long 5-6 year contract with big money and the Mavs are
only interested in offering him a short 1 or 2 year contract with
reasonable money. And Nelson wants Nowitzki to get a large number of
minutes at small forward. Unless Ceballos fails to find another team to
offer him the kind of contract he wants (and there are a couple of teams
interested in him), he will not be back. Custis and 2nd round draft pick
Ansu Sesay will likely receive invites to the training camp, but will have
to win a roster spot.
If the unlikely happens and the Mavs are unable to re-sign Thomas (the
Mavs and Thomas talked before the lockout and felt they had a reasonable
for both sides 1 year contract agreement, but that was sometime ago) the
Mavs will look to use one of the two exceptions they have available and
sign a free agent big man. Former Mavs and local residents Sam Perkins
and Popeye Jones are being talked about in the media as possibilities.
[But, Perkins is more likely to go a contender (and there is interest from
contenders) and talk before the lockout was that Boston was interested in
retaining Popeye.]
Another option for the Mavs is to make a trade. Nelson mentioned that the
team does have a glut at guard. If any team wants Khalid Reeves or
Robert Pack, make the Mavs an offer.
Dirk Nowitzki received his work visa the other day and is expected to be
in Dallas early next week - if not this weekend. He has continued to
play well in Germany and still leads the league in scoring and is in the
top five in rebounding. He had 34 points in the last game on the 3rd.
Nelson is still in love with Dirk. Nelson has been singing his praises
in the media the past few days. The other day I heard Nelson on the radio
and he talked about Dirk for a few minutes - great shooting touch, he'd be
disappointed if Dirk didn't win Rookie of the Year, etc - but had me
laughing when he concluded, "... but defensively he's a sieve."
Nelson also went over his prospective lineup. He did clarify afterwards
that the players could change his mind in training camp.
Position Starting line-up 1st off the bench
point guard Nash Pack/Reeves
shooting guard Finley Davis
small forward Nowitzki (Finley)
power forward Thomas Walker
center Green Bradley
For backup point guard, he said which ever of Pack and Reeves wins the
position in training camp. For starting power forward, he said with
Thomas' injury history, he wanted Thomas to be warm at the beginning
instead of sitting on the bench. For center, he said that he really likes
bringing Bradley in off the bench and that Bradley tends to perform better
that way. Strickland was mentioned earlier in the conversation as a
player who can play point and shooting guard, but I don't know if his not
being mentioned during the lineup discussion was intentional or Strick
just slipped Nelson's mind at that particular time. Nelson said that he
wants to bring Anstey along slowly and that Anstey would get most of his
minutes next season when Green is gone (this was also the point where
Nelson emphasized that the players could change his mind in training
camp). Nelson likes to have a rotation of about 10 players.
Another bit of good news came with the new CBA. There will be some sort
of signing window for players in the 3rd year of their rookie contract to
sign contract extensions with their team (it's not cap limited, but there
is a maximum of $9 million per season). They are working on the details
for this signing window. If you recall, the Mavs used this option (which
in the past expired at the beginning of October) to sign Finley to a long
term contract. Look for the Mavs to try to lockup Steve Nash. They may
also try to sign Samaki Walker.
Older news since the beginning of November:
11/3 Original Mavs hiree Kevin Sullivan resigned as vice president of
communications in order to join Dallas 2012 - the group trying to bring the
2012 Olympics to DFW. He was the committee's first hire and is in charge
of communications and a variety of other areas. Sully, one of the best
in the business, will be sorely missed. It was a friendly departure (not
forced or bitter) and, as usual, he had nothing but good thing to say
about the Mavs. He joined the team in 1980 as a public relations
assistant. Tony Fay (Director of Media Services) has assumed Sully's
responsibilities.
12/9 Former Mav update: The New York Liberty of the WNBA named Richie
Adubato has head coach. Adubato was an assistant coach for Dallas from
86-87 to early in the 89-90 season when he replaced fired John MacLeod
as the head coach 11 games into the season. His Mavs' head coaching
career ended when he was fired 29 games into the 92-93 season.
12/22 Former Mav update: former Mavs head coach Jim Cleamons is again out
of a job. Cleamons had been hired last summer as head coach for the
Chicago Condors in the ABL and the ABL declared bankruptcy.
patricia